Is China THAT conservative? 1000 years ago, the Tang Dynasty…

I spent three long, un-air-conditioned summers away on exchange in France. Waiting for me at home when I got back – a luggage inspection.

No, not from airport security..

from my mother:

“Why doesn’t this dress have a back? Oh, you wear it with a T-shirt. What? You wear it just like this? No you don’t – no daughter of mine is going to wear that outside. “

“Is this what you wear where you go swimming over there? What? You wear it on the street? No you don’t – you’re not going to wear that here”…blahblahblahblah……

Anything "over the top" about these outfits? Well, you should talk to my Chiense Mom.

How about this dress? My Chinese mother says-no!

Ridiculous, I know. But nonetheless, if I actually did try to wear those out of the house, I’m sure Mom would have me pressed face-down on the ground COPS style before I made it out the door.

What happens to me when i'm caught sneaking out in what i want to wear.

In Chinese society, for some reason, show any skin other than your legs and people start looking as if to put labels on you, and this goes double for your chest.

But tell me China -- 1000 years ago in the height of Tang dynasty poets were already singing poetry about the beauty feminine beauty,including lines about the beauty of exposed skin and low-cut dresses…

So why then, in the 21st century, have are we so conservative?

2014 drama ‘The Legend of Wu Mei Niang’ had an extravangant cast in a gorgeous true-to-life Tang Dynasty wardrobe. When it began airing ratings were ridiculously high.

Gorgeous costumes from Chinese Drama "Wu Mei Niang" - a drama that met the same fate I did!

But all great things must come to an end… History – specifically, the cleavage of history – betrayed the show.

The historically-accurate fashions of the Tang dynasty court proved too much for netizens, who jeered:

“we’re not here to see the drama, we’re here to watch the soccer” (a play on words that makes use of the Chinese 看watch plus球ball – aka, “soccer -> ball sports -> breasts”).

Wu Mei Niang's costumes: "historically accurate" isn't enough to save them from the modern censorship axe.

And, so it was. The censors had to give the show the chop.

This is the story of how ‘The Legend of Wu Mei Niang’ became ‘The Legend of Bobbleheads’.

This is what a censored Chinese drama looks like.

Here's another.

I paid RMB 50.. I recharged my member’s account.. and this is what you show me! …….. Gimme back my fitty kuai!!

It’s alright.. I’m okay. Let’s not talk about what happened with Madam Wu Mei right now.

Redirect attention.

Why did the women in the Tang dynasty have such luxurious, so bold a fashion sense? Pull up a seat – I have some potential answers.

Word has it that Tang was the height of feudal China. The silk road was thriving, exchange with bordering nations was frequent, and ethnic fashion began trending inside the nation. A possible lead: it’s recorded that northern Korean women would show more chest to flaunt after they gave birth to a son (– note: as a kind of way of saying "step aside b##ches, i had a son”!)

But, why would the cleavage trend spread so quickly throughout the mainland?

One possible reason involves an empress named Wu Zetian. Some say that a female ruler on the throne stirred awareness of female rights, which lead to certain challenges to the male-dominant status quo: some women began to dress in male clothing, some played polo, others found boytoys…. Haha, I kid…

But without a doubt, foreign fashion became the trend, people stopped wearing the traditional jacket and dress clothing, and women started coming out of their shells.

Foreign fashion all the rage. Nobles playing polo.

China hasn't always been so "conservative".. Compare this Tang Dynasty bust to the fashion in Europe at the time.

Does this remind you of the corset-and-cleavage culture in middle-age Europe?

Both seem to expose all the same skin, but they give a different feeling, no?

The former seems almost like self-mutilation of sorts. The other, like blossoming freedom. What’s the story behind this?

European fashion during the Tang Dynasty: corset constriction.

Corsets didn’t start like that...

At first, people started wearing corsets for the simple fact that they looked good. The renaissance came, and women found the freedom to wear more revealing clothing, hence the low neckline.

Being expensive, corsets became a symbol of the upper class. The public caught on, and soon, the slim corseted waist was the new “standard of beauty” deeply rooted in the minds of European women.

Sadly, this was a slippery slope. “Slim waist = beautiful” quickly became “a slimmer waist = more beautiful”. Inch by inch, corsets were pulled tighter and tighter. In the end, health – both physical and psychological – was sacrificed for the sake of social beauty standards. (sound familiar?)

An extreme example of a tight corset.. poor lass.

Today, for most of the world, corset waist training is a thing of the past. But as for the battle between socially determined standards of beauty and individual suffering... there’s no end in sight.

Wester example: what society expects of women.

Asian example: parents are notorious for such comments whenever family gathers.

Maybe you’ve heard of these Chinese “benchmarks of beauty”:

“A4 waist”, “i6 legs”, the “coin roll collar bone”….

Insane Asian "beauty" standards - the a4 waist, i6 legs & coin roll collar bone.

Why do all the “beauty standards” society churns out seem to be directed at women here?

Emma Watson disapproves.